Paying it forward - Viewfinder Card

[chaz]

The old way was 2 L shaped cards that you moved in and out to replicate field of view and cropping. http://www.photographers-resource.co...on_framing.htm

[AndymW]

Hi Andrew,

I would not get to tied down to the 'actual size' of the sensor in comparison to the card. I shoot with a Canon 7D 1.6x Crop and use the card as a reference point to find potential images in a certain senario. The viewfinder card helps me to do so.

A full frame is 36mm by 24mm so with that taken into consideration the viewfinder card is double the size.

So I would say you have not being doing it wrong, but can you imagine trying to look through a viewfinder card 22.3 x 14.9 it would be pretty difficult.

Thanks for that Paul,

The reason I’ve been using the sensor-size cut-out was I thought it would help me decide what focal length lenses I’m going to need when I get the camera, as I thought this method would give me a realistic image of what would actually be recorded by the camera; even though initially it does look a small ‘hole’ to look through, rightly or wrongly I’ve been sighting things up with it. I won’t know if it’s an accurate method until I buy the gear!

[tenchy]

nice one, and I like Sean's upgrade!

[Paul K]

nice one, and I like Sean's upgrade!

If you follow Chaz's link it even gives you one with thirds on it!

Hopefully it will help someone